The Village Sunday School eBook

CHAPTER II.

THE HISTORY OF JAMES.

There is a something connected with early associations
which is almost indescribable. Every one has
felt it, but few, very few, have been able to excel
in a description of it! Who has not felt, as he
gazes upon the cottage,—­the home of his
childhood,—­his youthful days flash with
all the vividness of reality before his mind; and
as he stands and muses on the bygone years, numbered
with those before the flood, he is almost spell-bound
to the spot! All his childish pastimes and youthful
pleasures pass in review before his mental vision;
while the little trials with which his cup was mixed,
are not without their influence in mingling a melancholy
with the pleasing reminiscences of the past. Much
has been said on this principle of association, and
truly much remains unsaid on the subject. Scarcely
is there a green sod, or a purling brook, a shady
forest-tree, or a smiling flower, an enchanting and
fairy landscape, or a barren and desolate heath; scarcely
an object in nature, or a work of art, which does
not awaken some gratefully pleasing, yet painful recollections
of the past!

It is to this principle I attribute much of the good
which results from Sabbath-schools. Often has
the pious teacher to return from his onerous duties
in the school, and retiring to his closet, to mourn
on account of the fruitlessness of his efforts; and
Satan never fails, at such seasons, to fill his mind
with discouraging thoughts, which weigh down his spirits,
and lead him almost to decide on retiring from the
work. To such, let the precept and promise of
God’s word,—­“Cast thy bread
upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many
days,”—­be a source of never-failing
encouragement. How frequently, in after life,
has it been found, that the instruction of the Sabbath-school,
though it may have lain dormant for a time, has not
been annihilated; but, through some circumstance,
or by some object, it has been resuscitated in the
memory, and it germinates, blossoms, fructifies, and
brings forth glorious fruit, which has cheered the
hearts and upheld the hands of many thousands of the
most self-denying and arduous laborers in God’s
vineyard.

James, the eldest of the three lads mentioned, was
a youth of considerable promise. He had one of
the most retentive memories I have ever met with.
Having reached the age of seventeen, his parents placed
him with a Methodist in a neighboring town, as an apprentice.
For twelve months after his removal, he stood aloof
from all connection with the Church and people of
God; after which period, as he remarks in a letter
to his brother, “at the request of the superintendent
of C——­ school, I became a teacher
in that school, and for four years remained as such.”
James continued as a teacher in the school for about
twelve-months previous to his becoming a member of
society; at the expiration of which time, he was induced,